The retrospective of Batman's career continues. As we enter the 70s, things get decidedly darker...
Cover
Just as last time the cover highlighted everything colorful and bright about batman, this one shows us the shadows. Each picture represents something tragic or hurtful, and the color scheme has gone darker and more realistic.
p. 1
Our son will inherit the world. Batman and Damian's mother, Talia, makin' a baby.
p. 2-3
Snippets of Batman's career in the 70s. From top to bottom, Batman battling Ra's al Ghul,
facing a shark in "Joker's Five-Way Revenge,"
and taking on a poor guy transformed into a werewolf by Dr. Milo.
These adventures all have one thing in common, interestingly: they were illustrated by celebrate 70s bat-artist Neal Adams! (Oh, and that last panel is more Bats/Talia sexy love time, obviously.
p. 4
Panel four: Batman versus Kirk Langstrom, AKA Man-Bat, another villain born in the 70s.
p. 7
Her name is Selina Kyle... AKA Catwoman, although in this alternate reality, she would have never been inspired by Batman to create that identity. Her alias on the previous page, Elva Barr, was an early name of hers in the Golden Age comics.
p. 9
Oh my God. The skeleton is wearing Dick Grayson's arealist costume, no doubt the "circus boy" whose body was never found.
p. 10
Panel one: Batman battles Deadshot, a Golden Age villain remade in 1977.
Panel four: Batman meets Jason Todd, who would become the second Robin, stealing the tires off the Batmobile.
p. 11
The real thing. This might be Morrison's way of explaining why Jason Todd's Robin uniform was exactly like Dick Grayson's (especially since every other Robin since has had a slightly different style).
p. 12
I have to go back through these creepy woods on my own! Looks like Joker's transitioned from goofy camp Joker into the more murderous Joker of the 80s. The beginning of his black joke goes something like this: A little boy and a mass murderer are walking through a forest. The mass murderer hears the boy say, "I'm scared."...
The bloody crowbar references the events of A Death In the Family. Jason Todd runs away to Ethiopia, because he believes his mother is there. Unfortunately, so is the Joker. Batman arrives too late to save Jason.
p. 13
Smile. A reference to The Killing Joke, in which the Joker shoots Barbara Gordon in the spine, paralyzing her.
p. 14
They're clawing out their own eyes! Even clones with his same genetic material and memories can't process tragedy into drive the way Batman can.
p. 15
Batman seriously needs a Robin. Tim Drake's first appearance. He was able to piece together that Dick Grayson was the first Robin, and that ergo Bruce Wayne was Batman. Seeing Batman's behavior become increasingly violent and risky after Jason Todd's death, Tim becomes convinced that Batman needs a Robin to balance out his dark side. Despite Batman's response in this panel, he eventually relents and Tim becomes his partner, as can be seen in panel with Tim in his updated Robin costume.
p. 16
Panel one: Bane breaks Batman's back in the Knightfall storyline.
Take off the costume! After the humiliating defeat at Bane's hands, Bruce foolishly asked the mentally unstable Jean Paul Valley - AKA Azrael, the angel of vengeance secretly trained by a weird religious order - to take his place. Valley became more and more unhinged and after Bruce recovered, he made Valley see the light and surrender.
p. 17
HELL COMES TO GOTHAM. Gotham was hit by an earthquake in the No Man's Land crossover event.
...it never ends! Batman battles Hush, a mysterious figure from Bruce Wayne's past who had organized all of his worst enemies into a conspiracy against him. From the Hush storyline (obviously!).
Those poor boys... Poor boy indeed - Tim's father was killed (by Captain Boomerang of all people) in the mini series Identity Crisis.
p. 18
What. Do. You. Deserve? is from Infinite Crisis where Batman nearly broke his oath against guns because Alexander Luthor was destroying the multiverse or something.
p. 20
Various call backs to Morrison's own run.
p. 21
FINALLY we get a bridge from the events of RIP to Final Crisis. Bruce survived the helicopter crash and immediately went on to his next case, the murder of a New God. Investigating it led him into the the silly situation he finds himself in now.
Alright, next on the agenda, we're gonna look at what's called RIP, the Missing Chapter. It was written well after RIP, probably to appease those who were complaining that RIP didn't make sense on its own, but it fits in narratively here. Plus it will answer some questions so that you don't have to read Final Crisis unless you want to.
